


Let the Stars Judge Us

by BogWithoutBodies



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dark Fairy Tale Elements, F/F, HAROLD THEY’RE LESBIANS, LGBTQ, LGBTQ Character, Original Fiction, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Their religion is based on constellations, Trigger Warning: Burning someone alive, sapphic vibes, well kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:47:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29416608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BogWithoutBodies/pseuds/BogWithoutBodies
Summary: Aerin loves Hali. Hali loves Aerin. But, now Aerin wasn’t so sure. Why, you might ask. Hali was wearing flowers in her hair.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character





	Let the Stars Judge Us

**Author's Note:**

> Right of the bat, Trigger Warning for fire and burning some one alive (yikes I know).  
> Next, yes this is gay. Sapphic, very very sapphic. Also, yes the flowers mentioned do having meaning in the Victorian flower language.  
> Last order of business, this was a bed time story for my little sisters that I spiced up, so it might sound better read aloud at a few points.

“There are flowers in her hair,” the thought rang through her head in harmony with the bite of the rope on her wrists, the cheers and jeers from the crowd. “She… She only does that for celebrations… I guess this counts as one…”

A sob fights its way up her throat, and she forces it back down, refusing to give the crowd the reactions they wanted. Amber eyes wander their way up to the raw wrists, entwined to her left wrist was a faded strip of indigo and blue cloth. The colors of Pisces, Hali’s colors. A gust of wind blows through, causing the ends of the cloth to twist and spiral, reminiscent of the maelstrom of emotions swelling inside Aerin’s chest. 

The red tinted glow of the fading sun brings back the overwhelming feeling of dread. It was as if the cosmos themselves were telling her there was no escape, her blood would be spilled tonight. No exceptions, no escape, only flames. She would never live to see tomorrow's morning light. Tomorrow. Tomorrow it would have been four years since they had met, three since the courtship had begun, and tomorrow would have been the day that Aerin would have asked Hali to-.

A loud cheer distracts her from her musings. The mob grows louder and louder. She looks down, trying to find the source of the commotion. When Aerin found it, her heart drops. They were dragging out logs. Frantically she searches the crowds to find Hali, hoping for one quick second that she would step forward, say that this all was one twisted joke. But she knew it would never happen. The cheers were suffocating and mindlessness in their madness. Madness, that's all this was. Madness to know that these people, just a day ago, had been her neighbors, her friends, her family, and now, now they were screaming for her to burn. Burn for a crime that she did not commit. These people she’d known all her life have turned on her like a pack of rabid wolves, snarling and hungry for flesh.

Their leader steps forward, clutching Hali to his side. Strong, passionate, beautiful Hali. It was impossible for her to believe that the same women who danced around her family’s spice shop with just candle light to guide them, the same who loved with all she had, whose tongue was feared for it’s sharp silver tinted nature, was now reduced to nothing more than a sheep in a wolf’s den, meek, scared, a rabbit paralized by fear. Tears stained her cheeks, cutting a path through the dirt and grime, her face that had been rubbed in when they dragged her to the town's center square, her cloth was absent from Hali’s wrist, having been replaced with his black cloth of Cassiopeia. The crowd’s howls and cries for her to burn slowly developed into nothing more than an incomprehensible roar, filling the air with their festering hate. Hali and the Leader stood at the forefront of it all.

The crowd parted suddenly, as the sound of clanking armour grew loud enough to drown out the chanting, revealing four guards bearing torches and cruel grins. One stepped towards the pyre Aerin was tied to, torch raised as he addressed her. 

“You have forsaken your place amongst us Astrolatrans. There is no place in the sky for your tainted soul. Tonight witch, you burn,” his muzzle twisted into a bloodstained smirk and turned sickening as he met her eyes.

“No... No... please-no, nonono, please no-,” any semblance of calm Aerin was able to keep before this is lost. The torches were lowered, closer and closer to the wood piled up around her legs. She refused to give into the urge to struggle, knowing that nothing she did would help her now. He had dug her grave, and now she must burn. 

Anguish replaced the adrenaline that coursed through her veins, her death would be here and now, by the hands of her family, her friends, and by the hands of the man who’d robbed her of her love. She could do nothing but endure. 

The smoke was rising above her head now, filling her lungs painfully with every breath, hoarsely she uttered what would be her last words, hopping by some miracle from the stars above that her lover would hear if nothing else but the heartache that she painted every word with, and the love she still held for her, which nothing could tear from her, not even now, “I wish… I wish I had been enough for you.”

Fire was nipping at her lips, each painful kiss forced its way into her mouth, as she fought for breath. The pain became too much too quickly, she couldn’t fend off the darkness at the edge of her vision any longer...With one final look to the starless sky devoid of the serene lights that she and Hali had fallen in love under. Her eyes closed and she was lost to the inky black of nothingness. 

* * *

Hali’s heart was shattered, her mind fragmented, her throat torn up by the screams she couldn’t release. No, this can’t be true, she couldn’t be. There’s no way Aerin could be, could be...dead. No, there was no way… The nothingness the world now convade was incomprehensible in the fundamental lack of her, for there could no longer be a world- a universe without Aerin, for it to revolve around. 

The arm of her captor tightened around her waist, drawing her mind back and making her heart flutter in that Aerin’s never could. With fear. Her captor leaned down to whisper into her ear, his hot puff of breath, sent shivers down her spine. 

“The flames are beautiful, aren't they? It’s a shame though, that she never begged for her life.” Hali nearly vomited. She could hear his smile that twisted his words into cold knives that pierced her heart. As starry tears escaped the cage she forced her emotions behind, he petted her quivering head and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, careful not to disturb the flowers woven in. 

A gust of wind tore through the square, with the might of a vengeful god and the screams of the damned, freeing the blacked cloth of Pisces from the charred remains of Aerin, still tied to the stake. Cradling the fragile cloth like a child, the howling wind cries mournfully as it gently lays it to rest before Hali’s feet. The winds mission seemingly complete, it turns on her captor, pushing him back, forcing him to let go of Hali, who drops to her knees, now freed.

Her silvery white hair is stained, glowing red by the fire, and her cheeks are dusted with black ashes, remains of the morbid scene she’d just played witness too. Slowly and carefully, oh so carefully, she picked up the burnt remnants of the cloth that once proclaimed Aerin as her beloved. Racked with sobs, she whispered, “There will never be enough sunsets beside you, enough starlight dances with you, enough kisses shared between us, to make up for the lack of you in all the years to come. No sunrise can replace your glowing smile, no rose, your blush. The melody the spring song birds sing could never even compare to your laugh, nor your voice saying my name. My dear, you are gone from this world, from me... and it's all my fault.” 

Her grief festered beneath her skin, akin to that of a parasite, as it sought out her heart to claim. Minutes slowed down to hours as her grief grew, and slowly started to turn into a burning hatred. A hatred for her self and all the others who had played a part in the sick game of the man who wanted her for himself. 

“This is your fault,” she whispered, her burning hatred growing into an inferno, as she rose, turning to face the man, still lying on the ground where the wind had knocked him. She stalked towards him like predators to their prey, fueled by a ruthless anger and cold hatred, each movement calculated. 

“My fault?” he scoffed, his words colored by his confusion at the uncharacteristic outburst from his supposedly tamed capture. “How is it my fault? If you had just accepted my hand willingly, then that witch wouldn’t have had to die!”

“You sick monster… You are nothing but a cruel beast! You used by brother against me! You told me if I didn't do as you said then you would have him killed. I know… I know you’ve killed him, my sweet baby brother… you liar...” Hali quiets for a moment, lost in her thoughts and memories of a time not overflowing with pain and heartbreak.

When she returned to the present, she snarled at him, words biting, “You promised me, she would be safe if I gave her up! You promised me, she wouldn’t be harmed! That the Star Touched would do nothing to her! You promised...” She breaks down, reduced to her sadness again. 

The wind returned, softly trailing it’s fingers through her hair, gently shushing her with its murmurings. Back lit with the flames from the still burning pyre, her tear-stained cheeks painted a portrait of utter devastation, as a strand of her silver hair falls before her eyes. The wind reached out to push her hair back, caressing her cheek as it did, revealing a small braid intertwined with a gold cloth. Aerin’s cloth. The wind howled, with the pain of a mother who had just lost her child, and the world gasped in shock at the sight of the braid, the symbol of marriage to them. 

“I curse you...“ Hali whispered, and the world seeming to fall silent, until her whisper reverberated throughout the town's square, “I curse you all! I curse you to forever feel the flames licking at your skin, and to forever hear my lover's cries as she is burnt alive! I curse with the wrath of stars as they mourn for their child! I curse you all!” With that final promise of pain, Hali turns on her heels and stalks away, never to look back.

A line of stars, blinks into existence, lighting her way from the cruel place that had once been their home, guiding her into the future. Their gentle, glowing light kisses her hair, illuminating it briefly, before disappearing for good. The wind came for the last time before departing, bringing with it a pale purple Anemone, which it tucked behind her right ear, just above the gold entwined braid, replacing the violets He had forced her to wear with one of its own. A lone tear escapes from Hali’s stone eyes.  
There were flowers in her hair, but this one? This one was for mourning.

**Author's Note:**

> Yikes. That was a mess.  
> Don’t worry, if ya liked it then good news, I’ve got plans for other stories with these lovely ladies (think of this like a DND back story if ya will).  
> Well, good night kiddos, sleep tight. Don’t let the demons bite.


End file.
